Adriano Zumbo @ The Star

Aaaaand after one of the longest weeks I’ve ever experienced, Thursday night had finally rolled around! I had been greatly anticipating visiting Zumbo all week. I had had a slight planning fail earlier in the week where I sent out an open invite on Facebook to see who wanted to come with, only to be assailed with more than five enthusiastic replies… after finding out that the train is actually quite small, with 16 spaces, I realised that I simply couldn’t take five people who didn’t know each other and expect to all be seated together. So I asked one of my mates if he had his sweet tooth in, and upon his agreement, we made our way over to The Star after dinner at Merivale’s Sushi Choo.

We came in at about 8.30 pm and were seated easily. Unfortunately we had missed out on the Sugar Daddy Happy Hour period (pink & white plates$4 and black plates $8, Wednesday to Saturday 6-8pm), but we weren’t too fussed as we didn’t think we would eat that much anyway. How wrong I was (about me, anyway)… I am such a ditz that I didn’t jot down the prices of the plates, but I would approximate that the white plates were $6, the pink $8 and the black $10 during normal hours. I really can’t believe I didn’t write it down, but I was just so overwhelmed by the gaudiness of the whole set up in the Zumbo store.

The train has periods where there’s absolutely nothing on the train, and then periods where it all arrives at once. There’s multiple plates of the same dishes so that you don’t have the SUSHI TRAIN WARS where you’re eyeing up a plate and the evil person four seats down from you yoinks it before your eyes.

The desserts are ARRIVING!! The girl gave us refridgerated bottles of water when we were seated. Water is a necessity when you’re constantly eating sweeties. You can also order sparkling/still water, and a variety of gourmet juices. My friend asked if the girl could ask the chef if he could have a glass of milk – and they were happy to oblige.

Also, I believe they used to have little toys and drinks going around on the train as well in between the dishes, but it looks like they decided to do away with that.

Anyway – it was time TO BEGIN!

Violet Crunchie: So creamy and light! (maybe not so light haha). The different mousses (the middle one was silkier), while incredibly aerated, were still incredibly flavoursome. The honeycomb shard was brittle and stuck to my molars as I crunched it, exactly like it should have.

Chocolate Namelaka: My friend pulled this one off the train but I wasn’t too impressed with it – simply just tasted like crumbly mud cake with fudge sauce to me… So after one bite I went for something else:

Pine & Mint Splice: I know it doesn’t look very appealing, but with the name of it I thought it was worth a try. Was I thankful I had! While it was the least attractive plate on the train, I found it incredible – bite-size pieces of pear, a mint-ish mousse, and some form of granita on the side (I forget the flavour), and a pine nut crumble.

Twisted Annunziata Ganache, Pear Compote, Caramelized Pear Gel: I don’t know what makes chocolate Annunziata? Upon looking it up online just now, the word ‘Annunziata’ is supposed to refer to the Virgin Mary. Okay….. Well I can’t say the chocolate made me feel any more spiritual in eating it, although it was very tasty. The two textures of pear – the compote & the gel, complemented the chocolate nicely, as pear and chocolate is one of those matches that are just meant to be. The bitterness and crunch of the bed of cacao nibs under the ganache took the edge off the sweetness.

Hazelnut Dacquoise: exactly like a Ferrero Rocher, except it lasts for more than one bite (hahaha). Loved the candied hazelnut.

Selection of macarons: Oops, forgot to get a photo before my friend mowed into them. The one he demolished was the Popcorn (the best), black one furthest away is Blackened Vanilla (one of my favourites), and the one closest is Finger Bun. I thought the one on the right had to be the famous salted butter caramel, but after a bite discovered it was BANANA. Ugh!!! I love Banana Bread, but I hate banana-flavoured things, they just taste so artificial.

Chocolate Coffee Brulee: Nice, but nothing that stood out to me too much – fudge brownie flavoured with coffee, and a strip of espresso/chocolate ganache beside it, with a big, glorious shard of toffee resting on top.

At this stage I had sampled everything off the train other than the Watermelon Yoghurt (I have issues with watermelon), and my friend decided to order the Fondant of the Day. When it came out, we were most amused:

It was a chocolate fondant (which caved in just as soon as you touched it to reveal a gloriously gooey centre), with peanut butter ice cream and biscuit crumbs, and a white chocolate/banana? sauce. My friend amused himself with the syringe. We had to squirt the syringe of warm sauce over the fondant and we had a dirty little snigger to ourselves as we did so:

Aaaaand finito!

It was nearing 10.00 o’clock and I needed to head home as I had uni the next day… but first I needed to visit the patisserie next door…

Very quirky and funky decor, although I do think Adriano Zumbo is glorifying his desserts a bit too much… While I like some of his creations, I can’t get my head nor palate around some of his stranger inventions and macaron flavours.

But I had to take some home for my sister, so I bought a box of six for $15:

From left to right: Passionfruit & tonka bean, Finger bun, Salted butter caramel, Annunziata chocolate, Blackened vanilla, & Popcorn. They also had Baby Powder there, but I thought that would just be too weird.

Overall, a very pleasant evening and I most definitely will be visiting again! It would be a great place to come by after dinner at one of the other restaurants in The Star complex. Next time, Cath, next time 🙂

Welcome!

I'm Cath at Confessions of a Glutton. I'm a cheesecake-devouring, sushi-craving, ramen-obsessed, salted-caramel-lover who is also a dance fitness instructor and a solicitor, living in the Northern Suburbs of the glorious city that is Sydney, Australia. These are my ramblings.